The search for improvement #5

This is the 5th edition of my blog about my search for chess improvement.

I think that the endgame tactic is for me the hardest part of this program for improvement. I feel like I am being dragged through a hedge of calculation backwards and I must admit that I only saw the first move after seing my candidate move being critisised. I guess that tactics calculation is easier because I have a method of thinking and that I need to create this for the ending, preferably as fast as possible. The lesson I learned from this puzzle, warning big hint ahead, is to always look to gain tempis (or in this case a tempo). Here is the position.

Okay so I have already said that I was wrong with my first idea, bringing the king around imediatly, I kind of new it wasn't winning but because there wasn't anything else that I could see went for it. It draw by one tempo. The answer is Rg8+ that forces the king to go to the f file (go to the h file and you are condemned to a slow painfull death) you then follow it up with Rh8 forcing him to protect his pawn and then bring your king around, you will gain the tempo necessary and will reach this position white to play an win:

Here we go, tactics time.

1st tactic : solved

The first thing I noticed was the mate threat on h1, f3 left one escape square, f2 how do you block it ? With the bishop Bc5+ fails to Re3 leaving only one move moves Bg3. I checked that there was no way to escape (mainly looking at the checks because the king is stuck) and concluded that had to be it.

2nd tactic : solved

I look at the position think check ? Doesn't look great what if I take he must take back... I can then leave him to have no other move than Kh8 then Kf7 traps him and I've got mate, yay !

3rd puzzle : success

My first thought was to take the rook on g7 but then there is mate. I could take the rook once then fork the king and rook with Qe5+, but then Rc7 ruins it. But if I don't take then the rook on g8 would mean that Rc7 is impossible. If he moves his king then I take the rook and If he blocks with the queen I take the queen and then take wichever rook I can.

4th puzzle : failure

I just couldn't see the correct plaan, moving the rook failed (try to find all the tricks with the knight) so it had to be something else. I went for Bc7 because when the dust settled all would be equal and that was the best result possible. Sadly my plan had one tiny little flaw, I could gain material. Qb2 was the solution, I had looked at it but couldn't see the winning move because Rxf8 was too counter intuitive.

5th puzzle (make or break) : success

Blcks king is in trouble, my first thought towards Qh5 but it failed because g6 or Kf8 stop me from checkmating so how can I do it ? Well Qf3+ is the other check, it's nearly mate, the only move is Nf5. And that is the knight that stops Qh5+ so if I play Qh5+ now than Qxg6 is mate, the line is entirely forced

My game of chess is another 15+15 game. In this game I had the higher rating and unlike last game it was quite smooth. I could have messed it up because of a trap but I saw it coming so dodged it because I took more time in calculating. I was much slower than my opponent and I am proud of it, I took my time to calculate all the lines, here is the game :

Okay, I am going to put my personal analysis with in brackets the computers position on the key positions that I chose and any other position where there was an evaluation change.

-I played a tame opening because I am somewhat unconvinced with the variation with c3 than d4 in the place of 0-0

-I calculated tricks after Nxa4 where I took the b pawn, they all seemed to fail (stockfish : I agree)

-Re8 was the first mistake he should have simply taken my pawn (stockfish : I agree)

(-after this blacks positions gets worse little by little then...)

-Nxf7 fails to Nd5 where the knight is trapped I well get enough pans but I didn't want the complications (stockfish : I agree)

-Re8 was the second mistake he should have played (the same) knight to d5 (stockfish : I agree)

-Re7 lost on the spot, the best move was probably c6 (stockfish : I agree)

The middlegame lesson was on queen vs two rooks here are the principales :

-The safety of the side with two rooks king is key. If the queen has a target than its can do more forks. The rooks are bad defenders so aren't very usefull.

-The rooks are strong when they are connected and targetting one point. If that is the case and the king is safe than the rooks are better.